


Ren after Taako

by Dooiney_Oie



Series: Last elf standing [2]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Don't mind me just working through my feelings, Gen, Nothing graphic but there is a corpse so gonna stick that death cw on there, Post-Canon, Spoilers for the last couple of arcs as well as endgame a little bit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-05
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-24 09:41:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12010077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dooiney_Oie/pseuds/Dooiney_Oie
Summary: Taako has finally passed on and Ren takes a moment to remember him.A continuation of "Took you long enough" because there wasn’t really any closure with regards to Ren and I enjoy making myself cry.





	Ren after Taako

 

 

“Hey, Taako, you’ll never guess who I just-” Ren stops in her tracks, one hand still gripping the handle of the half-open door, the other supporting a small tray holding two cups of steaming tea. “…ran into….”

Taako is slumped in a large armchair, his head resting against the side. That’s not unusual, she’s come in here dozens, hundreds of times to find him asleep in the same position, in the same chair. Sometimes Kravitz or Lup or Barry is there too, just sitting with him quietly. It’s a familiar scene.

But this time, something’s different. Not the pose, not the place, not the gentle silence of the room. Even from here, she can see how different he looks. White hair frames his face, his body almost unrecognisable in its frailness. His skin looks like the sun-faded leather binding of an old book in the amber light trickling in through the window. She had known (or at least had had her suspicions) about the glamours he kept active every second of every day, even when he was sleeping. That was what had made her stop. Hundreds of times she’s entered this room to find him quietly resting, but she has never caught him wearing his real face. It means something is wrong.

She takes a few steps into the room and sets down the tray, softly, as if not to wake him. The china clinks quietly against itself. His chest isn’t moving. There’s no breath to disturb the loose strands of hair falling across his face.

“It’s been that long, huh?” She whispers in her mild desert-town drawl.

Somehow, even after all these years, it’s still a surprise. It would be a surprise to most people, when they found out. To the world, it felt like Taako from TV - Taako from that incredible day of story and song that many people now weren’t old enough to remember but which every child heard about over and over during thousands of bedtime stories - was going to live forever. It had felt like that to her, too, despite everything. He’d passed all of his responsibilities on to her a few years ago, and ever since then some small part of her had known what was coming. There had been so many small things, too - brief flashes of pain across his face, gone as soon as she saw them; the slow, careful way he moved, as if through water; how his hands would shake so much sometimes he couldn’t cook, and his eyes would burn in quiet frustration even while his mouth cracked jokes. Kravitz had been stopping by more and more, Lup and Barry too. She had known, really, that he didn’t have much time left. Even so, it still hurts.

She walks across the room towards him - softly, again, because he does look so much like he’s sleeping, because disturbing the peaceful stillness of the room would feel like shattering some precious, delicate crystal. She kneels next to him, reaches out and takes one of his hands in both of hers. It’s not yet cold; she’s just missed her chance to say goodbye.

She lowers her head, presses her brow against his limp hand. “I’m gonna miss you,” she chokes, through tears that drip against his fingers, running down to fall in tiny, silent drops in the dust.

She feels a touch on her shoulder, a presence behind her.

“I’ll miss you too, little Ren. Make me proud.”

She whips round, her breath catching in her throat. There’s no-one there. Only the open door and the tray on the table and the soft darkness waiting patiently in every corner for the sun to set. She wipes her eyes roughly with one hand, the other still clutching her mentor’s. She looks at it for a long, aching second, brushes her thumb over his paper-thin skin once, twice, and then lets it gently slip from her grasp. He isn’t there, not any more. She turns back to the empty room.

“Goodbye, Taako.”

There’s no answer. Just the door, the tray, and the fragile, crystal silence. It’s enough. She sits in a chair across from the remains of her teacher, closes her eyes, bows her head, and remembers.

The tea is long cold by the time she leaves.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I really appreciate feedback, especially if it's people telling me I made them cry. It makes me feel powerful.
> 
> Probably the last outright Sad thing I'll write but you never know. Sometimes you just gotta.


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